


Missing link on the brink...

by BunnyJess



Series: FemJayWeek 2020 [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Damian Wayne Feels, Damian Wayne Needs a Hug, Donna Troy - Freeform, F/F, F/M, Family, FemJayWeek 2020, Female Jason Todd, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Kyle Rayner - Freeform, Light Angst, Multi, Protective Dick Grayson, Sick Kid, Talia al Ghul - Freeform, Twins, Ummi Jason Todd, mentions of:, red emergency bat phone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:35:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26402803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BunnyJess/pseuds/BunnyJess
Summary: When a call comes through to the family-only emergency line in the cave the Batfamily will discover just how the bird who flew too close to the sun has been up to since her return from the multiverse. A boy gets his Ummi back, Dick is protective, Bruce just wants to hug her, and Alfred is the calming presence we all need.
Relationships: Kyle Rayner/Jason Todd/Donna Troy
Series: FemJayWeek 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1918915
Comments: 5
Kudos: 107
Collections: FemJay Week 2020





	Missing link on the brink...

**Author's Note:**

> Written for day one of FemJay week: prompt Ummi!Jay

A call came through the family-only emergency line in the cave. Every person present jumping to the ready while Bruce rushes over to answer. His heart pounding in his chest as he realised there was only one person who could be calling, except she’d never once called since being back.

His palpitations hadn’t settled after the conversation either. Bruce had waved the family off, reassuring them all that the emergency wasn’t a BatFamily one. The reassurance failing as he started stripping out of his suit.

“You’re not joining them on patrol Father?” Damian asked from where he sat at the computer. Banned from patrol due to lack of rest, the scowl on his face telling them all how he felt.

Bruce looked around at his children realising that Damian was subtly voicing what they were all thinking. “Not tonight, your older sister needs my attention. Any of you are welcome to join us, either before or after patrol.” Damian took it for the offer it was, already starting to make his way to the lift back up to the manor.

“Wait, Jay’s coming here for help?” Dick asked. Bruce could understand the wariness in his eldest son. They’d never really seen eye-to-eye and he hadn’t seen how she’d healed while away with Donna and Kyle.

Bruce nodded as he followed after his youngest. His eldest making an awful racket as he nearly fell over himself trying to strip out of the Nightwing suit. His steps just as loud as he ran to the lift Bruce graciously held open for him.

Half an hour later and the gate security buzzed alerting Bruce to their guest. The three of them now starting to feel the buzzing of their anxiety kick up; each for different reasons. Bruce because it was the first time seeing his daughter in person in years, Dick due to his overprotective nature with his younger siblings, and Damian due to the unknown quantity this new person possessed they assumed.

A red 2002 Jaguar X-type idled to a stop. Bruce feeling his palpitations starting back up as his eldest daughter got out of the car. He hadn’t seen her since a week after her trip through the multiverse with Troia and Green Lantern three years earlier. Her decision to stay away making the hole she’d left in his heart after her death, which she’d partially healed after they’d resolved their tension upon her return, grow wider every day. Still, he knew it was best for her. He’d seen how she’d thrived during her trip, coming back mentally healthy and looking more like her old self.

“Dad,” she frantically called as she struggled with the rear door. Her back to him as she fought with the old door.

He ran down the steps and took over pulling the door open. Masking his surprise at the passengers by helping them from the car. A set of twins, no older than two, needed their belts unlatched and both looked too sleepy to get themselves out of their seats.

Jay pushed him aside and lifted the first one out, a small child with blonde curly hair, and passed them to Bruce. Her hand reaching out of the car to also pass him their stuffed Superman toy. The second she carried herself. The toddler perched against her hip in a way that spoke of familiarity. A Hawkwoman plushie held tightly in the child’s tiny hand.

She took a fortifying breath and turned to Bruce. His little shadow studying her intently. Jay hadn’t wanted to call Bruce but no one else made sense. In the back of her mind he still meant safety. “Thanks for this Dad.” She didn’t realise what she was calling him; her mind too consumed with worry.

“No need to thank me Jay, I’ll always be here for you.” He stumbled around the words, communication still not his strong suit.

Jay blinked as she realised who his little shadow was. “Is that you Dami?” An Arabic she’d not spoken in a good few years rolling from her tongue as if it was her only language. Talia having had no room for anything except perfection in her children.

He blinked up at her, scowl falling from his face and giving way to surprise then elation. “Ummi? It can’t be. Grandfather said you were dead.”

Careful of the toddler asleep on her shoulder the woman dropped to one knee, her unoccupied arm thrown open. Damian barrelled into her chest. Great heaving sobs suddenly breaking him, and by extension her own heart, as he felt the familiar hold of his Ummi. The woman who’d been his first real family and had taught Mother how to care, how to show love and kindness, how to have a gentleness with her children that she’d never had herself. A mom to him before Talia had truly earned the title.

“Get the fuck away from him Jay.” Dick growled out. Hiding his jealous fury behind a protective façade.

Jay loosened her hold, preparing to release Damian, except he just clung on tighter. He might have been thirteen, nearly fourteen now but he was still the little runt she’d loved. It made it easy to scoop him onto her other hip, changing bag banging against her back.

“I’ll get away from Damian only if he wants me away.” She said back. Meeting his eyes with her own teal ones, the green tint from the pit never quite leaving them despite its rage fading over the years.

Bruce stepped in, ushering them into the house. All the while smiling sadly as Damian babbled at Jay flitting between League versions of Hindi and Farsi. A behaviour he’d only shown around his father’s family once before when he’d gotten Titus.

The group settled the kids in the living room nearest the kitchen and then retired for tea. Alfred already brewing it. Only pausing to pull Jay into a fierce hug.

They sat at the breakfast table, Damian sitting as close to Jay as he could. Refraining from sitting in her lap like he used to purely so as not to disturb her first cup of Alfred’s tea since before her death. She’d told him how much she loved her grandfather and their afternoon teas, a tradition the older man had only restarted after her death at Damian’s insistence as it reminded him of the sister he too thought long dead.

It was weird for Bruce. Seeing his daughter so grown up; so self-assured in her body and mind. It was something she’d struggled with as a teen, not helped by the hero community comparing her to Dick even if Bruce never had. His past approval of her and her differences to Dick the only reason they’d been able to move past everything that had happened since.

Quiet settled over them. The only noise coming from the munching of shortbread and clinking of china. Three of the four watching Jay without wariness. Dick still convinced it was a ruse to infiltrate them; even if he couldn’t work out how two kids fit into it. Two kids that clearly weren’t biologically Jay’s. They just looked too different.

“What’s the game Jay? What angle are you playing?” Dick cut into the relaxed atmosphere. Tension suddenly rocketing up.

The woman in question tilted her head, seeming to be listening to the door they’d left cracked for the toddlers. “You’re the only people I know who can reach out to the Justice League for help. There is no game. I called the family red phone because I’m still Bruce’s daughter, even if you never saw me as such.” She looked away from the table, blinking back tears she didn’t want them to see. It would be too much like a victory to Dick she thought. “I don’t expect your help but I had to ask, I had to…for them.”

“Start from the beginning sweetheart.” Alfred said. Gentle as always with the girl-turned-woman he’d always love as a granddaughter.

So she did. Jay told them about a life that seemed like something out of one of her classic novels. How during their trip through the multiverse Jay had enjoyed spending time with Donna but hated Kyle’s smug attitude. The constant fighting for their lives bringing them closer and the ultimate betrayal of Bob. That betrayal by someone they’d come to trust being part of the reason she’d stepped back from the family. Never wanting to get hurt by the same people twice, made worse by the death of a Bruce who’d actually avenged her. Culminating in a decision she’d made before the final fight.

Then they’d had the battle on Apokolips. Seeing Donna and Kyle hurt, still fighting at her side to get them all home. To save the multiverse and prove they weren’t anomalies. That they deserved to live just as much as anyone else. It showed her that maybe, just maybe, there were people she could trust with her heart.

It had seemed natural to remain together upon their return to their own Earth. The Amazon and Lantern helping her find a balance in her life. Training alongside Donna and spending her nights patrolling New York; keeping the poorer neighbourhoods safer by routing our corruption higher up the chain.

A balance that got upended when Jay fetched home a tiny set of twins. During her patrols she’d come to know the regular street workers; be it sex, drugs, or just city street cleaners. One of the working girls she’d known had screamed out one night, Jay finding her bleeding out from multiple stab wounds. The woman didn’t care about her own life, all she could do with her last breaths was beg Jay to look after her kids. Finally passing on once Jay swore they’d find a safe and loving home.

That safe and loving home turned out to be with three people who’d all died; an Amazon, a space cop, and the Bronx very own Bluebird. When Jay called the twins tiny, she meant it. Both only a couple of days old and under four pounds each. She’d rushed them to hospital and then claimed they’d been given to her by Bluebird to get them help.

Everything was going fine, until earlier that day. Kyle was away in space, the Lantern Corp pulling him into a war in another sector while Donna was training the newest Teen Titans. It meant Jay was alone with the twins.

“I had nowhere else to go. Jane is sick and Lucy can’t be around her because she’s still at risk due to her low birth weight and other issues. I didn’t want to come here as Tim can’t be exposed to germs but I…I needed,” Jay let out a soft noise. Lip trembling.

“Do not worry Ummi, Father and I will help care for Lucy therefore you can focus on helping Jane.” Damian assertive as ever takes the decision away from everyone. Instantly making Dick scowl as he glares at the wooden tabletop.

Jay looks up at Bruce, fear creeping into her eyes as she gazes at the man she’d once considered a father. A man she’d hoped would be the grandfather to her children.

That fear disappears as soon as Bruce returns the smile. Reaching out to take her hand and squeeze it. Reassurance in every twitch of muscle.

“Jay,” he says as if it’s a prayer, “you’re always welcome here. Just as you will always be my daughter.” He casts an amused glance towards Damian, “plus I can’t deny my son the person he sees as his mum now can I.”

Damian, finally happy that Jay will be staying, gives up all pretence of politeness and climbs into Jay’s lap. Her hand rubbing his back in gentle circles automatically. His head falling to one broad shoulder. A happy, content sigh leaving him.

“I really have missed you Ummi. Thank you for coming home.” He whispers just for her. Her arms tightening around him as she feels him nuzzle his black hair. He switched back to League Hindi, still unsure if his father knows their Farsi from his time there. “I love you Ummi.”

“I love you too my little Peanut.” She says back just as quietly. A happiness filling her at the prospect of her daughters knowing her first child, her first little one who managed to go from brother to son after so many nights curled together.


End file.
